1964-01-24 - Crashing the Institute
Summary: Continuation of 'Quoth the Raven' with Tony whining to his old friend, Charles.
Related: http://marvel1963mush.wikidot.com/log:1964-01-16-quoth-the-raven
Theme Song: None
xavier tony 


(Continuation from 'Quoth the Raven'

Charles scoffs, thinking to Tony, If I'd had a child all this while and you had only just now noticed, I think we'd have larger concerns. though he too looks rather impressed as the suit folds tidily away. Even if he's trying not to outright gape, he rather agrees with Lorna.

As she speaks Charles replies, "Alright. Let's talk again after I've had a chance to look for Raven, yes?" and at Tony's request for scotch he can't quite help but note, "Tony, this is a school."

A school that actually does have a very nice collection of spirits, but far less prominently kept than they once were.

Drats. That might mean she's too young. Tony gives a little snap to himself before he looks between the two again, "Oh, did I interrupt something?" No apologies though. As Charles' voice enters his head again, he makes a face, "That is still -so- weird." Not bad, just weird.

"Wait, what about Raven? Is she here? Is she ok?" He seems to know her as well. The comment about it being a school just gets a blink. "And? It's also your house. Do you need me to show you where we used to stash booze?"

*

Fortunately 'weird' is rather the rule here nowadays.

As Lorna takes her leave, Charles turns his full attention on Tony, his expression uncharacteristically difficult to read. "No..Raven hasn't lived here for some time. She went her own way before I returned from Uni, and we've not spoken recently."

Though once this matter-of-fact reply is given, Charles follows it with a chuckle. "Oh, you'd not recognize the basement anymore, believe me, my friend." he walks past Tony, patting him on the shoulder as he trots past towards the study. "But I suspect we can turn something up nevertheless."

*

Tony moves over to retrieve his suit-briefcase, "Before? Really?" Did it have something to do with him? That wouldn't be optimal. It wouldn't be the first time, but he sort of hates when he ends up screwing over his friends. "Did it turn into a daycare? Are you seriously running a school? Like…for kids?" Because that probably means there's no booze.

Following Xavier, he then asks, "Do you remember my assistant? Did you ever meet her? Adorable redhead. Really smart. Workaholic-type, legs for days. She got hooked on this weird drug and up and left! She left me! I gave her an apartment!" The very nerve!

*

Xavier has partially disconnected.

*

As sometimes happens around Charles, Tony feels a wisp of regret that, if he's paying close attention, isn't actually his own. "Yes, it was a year or so after your little visit to Oxford, but you had something you wanted to talk about? This way."

The kids that had been out front and the others Tony can definitely hear in other rooms as they traverse halls and stairs suggest that, yes, the place really is a school for child-type people now. Fortunately for Tony, this doesn't turn out to mean there is no booze. It just means Charles heads up to a study on an upper floor instead where he unlocks a cabinet to retrieve it.

Or at least starts to. The key pauses in the lock as Charles turns a startled look on Tony. "Your assistant has gone missing?"

*

"Kids. Seriously." Tony looks around as they pass the students on the way to the Study, "Not missing. I gave her an ultimatum. Either she gets off the stuff of she has to resign. She didn't want to get of the stuff." Maybe that's the decision that frustrates him the most. "I quit drinking…mostly…for her." He flops down on the nearest seating as soon as they enter the study, his suit-briefcase chucked off to the side. "She chose a drug over her work. Work that she loved. She chose a drug over -me-."

*

Charles is still paused next to the unopened drinks cabinet, his brow drawn, head turning to follow Tony as he falls into a chair.

"This drug wouldn't go under the moniker of 'vigor', would it?"

At the least, the question of what brought Tony to Westchester seems to be clearing up a bit.

*

Tony waves a hand towards Charles and the liquor cabinet. "I've resumed my drinking." Just in case he was paused because of his earlier statement. "That was the name she used. Said it gave her powers and she could order people about and they'd do what she told them. First of all, that sounds awful." Being bossed around and not knowing you're being bossed around? Having no choice? "What if she made them do something they didn't want to do?"

*

There's a flicker of smile from Charles as Tony apparently picked up on that aspect of his hesitation. He opens the cabinet door remarking, "Far be it for me to stamp out some rare, fledgling streak of temperance in you. The novelty alone.." though he quiets again until Tony has finished speaking.

Two low glasses are retrieved and dosed with Scotch, one soon set next to where Tony is sitting while Charles stands to one side. The question is certainly one he's devoted his share of thought to in his life, weather the relevance has crossed Tony's mind or not. "Then she would be violating their right to autonomy." Charles says simply, though he's frowning. He's heard vague mention of vigor, but that's new information to him. "You think she really could do such things then? As opposed to being delusional from the drug?"

*

The glass is taken and lifted in a salute before he takes a sip of the scotch. Tony does seem to approve as he listens to Xavier, "I dunno. I mean, I've never heard of a drug that could do that," and he's probably had his share of experiences with them. "Temperance is boring. Believe me. These last few months without drinking? Total snooze-fest. Barely any fun. And I've had to deal with meetings. So many meetings." At least when he's tipsy to drunk, they send others to the meetings.

"I never asked her to try it on me. I just don't like my assistant…my clean-cut assistant doing drugs. I blame it on her boyfriend. Sort of boyfriend. Completely blew up her apartment, blew up half of my building, and nearly killed me and Captain America. And he stole some stuff from my lab." He shakes his head, "Now that I say that aloud, I have to question her judgement…"

*

"Meetings? My, how horrific." Charles says with an admirably straight face. The sparkle in his eye though gives him away. He shifts to lean against the antique side table. "Sounds like the woe-filled trials of one who owns a peskily successful tech company.."

The conversation soon turns even more startling, and Charles can only reply, "Yes, that does sound a touch extreme.. do you mean to say the two are still close after this man did all of this?"

*

"Apparently,' Tony sips at the scotch, "Apparently he kidnapped her to try and wean her off the drug. But she says it could kill her if she stops." Dark eyes look over to Xavier, "I know I have my issues," is said in a rare moment of clarity and self-awareness, "And I know how they manifest. She has classic signs and the fact that she chose to leave instead of clean up means she doesn't see it as a problem."

He looks at tumbler for a moment, "At least knowing you have a problem is something."

*

Xavier raises an eyebrow at the honest admission, but doesn't comment on it. Instead he rests one elbow on a crossed arm, taking a drink from his own glass. "Unless she has been made to believe that 'going clean' would actually literally kill her; what if this beau of hers, or someone else had led her to believe that? —Have you spoken to her since?"

*

"Her 'beau' apparently tried to get her clean and she left." Not wanting to get off the drug enough to try," he adds. Tony finishes off the scotch and twists the tumbler in his hand, "She left and I don't know where she is. She isn't staying in the hotel room I put her up in…I suppose I could hire a PI to find her, but if she's really capable of doing that, she can send him away without getting information, right?" He looks to his own friend with the mental abilities. "What would I say to her? 'You may not think you have a problem but you do. You need to get off the stuff.'?"

*

"I'd start with 'why is it you don't think you can manage without it', and go from there, myself." Charles replies, swishing his own drink a bit in an unconscious sort of way. "From what little I've heard of this drug, it sounds abnormally compelling. But if you're worried she'll send you away, then perhaps understanding her position as she sees it would reveal more than telling her how you see it — even if objectively there's good reason to suppose your perception is the correct one. But did you come all this way simply to pick my brain for tidbits from my psychology classes?"

*

Tony looks over at Xavier for a moment before he gestures with his empty glass, "'All this way'? You're in Westchester. And I can fly." It didn't take long at all for him to get there. "You're the one who knows about people with powers…" seeing that he has them himself. "I'm just the genius." He's just not a 'social' genius.

"I read Psychology books too…and I could launch that mumbo jumbo at her if I could find her, but…what if she wants nothing to do with me? What if she doesn't want to hear it? What if she just wants to keep taking that drug and having those powers?"

*

"Then I would say that sounds to be time for an intervention." Charles replies carefully. Though his head is tilted curiously as that too is a concept Tony should be well familiar with.

"It's difficult for me to speculate about the nature of her addiction or any powers that she might have without meeting her myself, after all." Though he is beginning to suspect that may be what Tony had in mind in coming over— flying suit or not, Westchester was far enough afield to keep Tony from stopping by until now, after all.

*

Or Tony just sort of forgot. Or, more likely, Tony didn't want his friend to worry about him. Everything is well-hidden and only Pepper knows…possibly a few of the women he's bedded…so it's really a miracle that it's not out and about, really. "How do you do an intervention for someone who doesn't want to quit? I think I'm the only one who actually gave her that ultimatum. But I can't have someone ordering my people about against their will. I mean, it's one thing for a boss to do it, but they can say 'no'." He looks over to Xavier and tilts his head, "You get it, don't you?"

*

It's only really now occurring to Charles Tony largely only saw what he now considers the 'parlor trick' version of his abilities. Crystal would never ask that, though that's after more than one blunt conversation on the topic.

"Yes, I take your meaning very well." he says. "But if you're right, then at the moment she isn't in proper control of herself either. And might not be until she's had time away from this drug."

*

Everyone has their secrets…even old friends. Tony sets the tumbler down, not asking for a refill; he certainly wasn't completely sober when he first arrived. "But she won't be away from the drug because she chose it over a very well-paying job complete with her own apartment and -me- as her boss. How could anyone in their right mind walk away from that?" He does actually seem to be serious.

*

There's a hint of a smile as Charles replies, "That aside, I was rather suggesting she might not be in her right mind at the moment." he lets out a breath, and finishes off his own scotch. The glass settles on the side table with a clink. "What you should do next however is all rather immaterial if you don't know where she is, I would think."

*

"If she doesn't want to be found, I'm not sure I -could- find her. It's not like she left a forwarding address," Tony points out. "And even if I found her, would she even talk to me? I mean, I would hope so, but maybe she didn't see that I was trying to help her before?" By giving her that ultimatum. "If she's happy on this drug, who am I to tell her that she's in danger? Is she in danger? I mean, I'm not really anyone to her, she made that pretty clear."

*

"Well, it rather sounds to me as if you were suggesting happy or no, that she had abandoned all the things she had hitherto seemed to care about and that you had reason to worry she was altering the decisions of those around her?" Charles does pry a bit at this point, wondering if Tony's assistant simply mentioned the ability, or if he has reason to think she was doing that to people.

*

"Oh, she told me flat out what the drug let her do," and that's in Tony's memory as well. She told him that she could tell people to do things and they'd do it, without question or hesitation. "I'm worried that she's choosing this drug and its power over leading a real life. I know drugs are just escapes. I know that you can't be happy just giving into their siren's call." He leans forward then, a hand scrubbing through his hair, "What am I supposed to do? She's gone, she probably won't be back…" and Tony isn't too sure what to do without the one person who knew all his secrets.

*

It's a touchy sort of situation— a question of agency and of what decisions might ever be right to make on behalf of another.. But also possibly a question of a powered individual badly dependant on a drug usurping the will of others. And a person an old friend of his cares about possibly in serious trouble.

Charles lets out a slow sigh. "..As I said, anything else is moot if you can't find her. That's the first matter. After that…should you find her again, perhaps you'd like me to come along, and we might speak with her together?"

*

Tony's hand scrubs at his face before he pushes himself up from his chosen seat. He paces a little before nodding, "All right. Maybe she'll listen to you if she won't listen to me. I don't…I don't even care if she comes back to work for me. I just want her off that stuff. If it's about the power, I…that's not the way to do it." Says the man who wears an iron suit. "Thanks, Sherlock." There's a wry little smirk then. "I'm sorry I crashed into your school."

*

Charles smiles at the nick name and assures, "Believe me, compared to some visitors we've had your entrance was relatively tame. And it will give the students something to be excited about. I was glad you know, to hear that you'd sworn off weapons. I hope that we might find some way to help Ms. Potts," — the name was impossible to miss with how focused on the woman Tony's been — "But in either case, I hope you won't be a stranger Tony."

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